Archive for March, 2017
Tuesday, March 28th, 2017
First published on Werewolf
If Labour and the Greens were hoping their Budget Responsibility Rules (BRR) agreement would foster an unlikely alliance then hey… mission accomplished! Because it isn’t every day that Sue Bradford, the CTU and Matthew Hooton speak with one voice, as happened yesterday. Unfortunately though, it's hard to ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the Labour/Greens Deal
Tuesday, March 21st, 2017
First published on Werewolf
By now, any lingering hopes among the left that Donald Trump might prove to be an anti-Establishment figure likely to lessen US militarism abroad and inequality at home have been well and truly shredded. Some of us never had any illusions on that score. Yet the virulent ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Chuck Berry
Friday, March 17th, 2017
First published on Werewolf
Do yesterday’s election results in the Netherlands have any lessons for our own election campaign this year ? So far, the headline stories have been about (a) the failure of the populist ultra-right to make significant gains, partly because the ruling party successfully co-opted most of its ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Dutch lessons for Labour
Wednesday, March 15th, 2017
First published on Werewolf
Tomorrow morning, the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) will appear at Parliament to make the case that an abortion law passed 40 years ago may now need to be reviewed and modernised, in the light of 21st century attitudes and practices. You’d think that this would be a ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the conflicts over abortion
Friday, March 10th, 2017
First published on Werewolf
Perception matters. If whistle blowers don’t feel protected if and when they relay their concerns to senior staff – let alone if they later feel impelled to go public to the media – then the formal protections on paper are worthless. The fact that three Transport Ministry ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the Transport Ministry scandal, quad bikes and Frankie Cosmos
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017
First published on Werewolf
Yesterday, the government finally announced the age of eligibility for superannuation will rise in steps from 65 to 67 but… don’t worry, the process won’t begin to be phased in until 2037 and won’t finally be in place until 2041. Is there a pattern here? Reminds me ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on National’s token National Super age hike
Friday, March 3rd, 2017
First published on Werewolf
Yesterday, Labour leader Andrew Little chose to appoint Winston Peters – and not Greens’ leader James Shaw – to Parliament’s committee on the security and intelligence services, as replacement for Labour’s David Shearer. Little justified the decision on these grounds:
[Peters has] had ample experience of briefings from ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Labour’s latest love letter to the right
Thursday, March 2nd, 2017
First published on Werewolf
A penis conveys gravitas to any political career. Think of the stream of gaffes by Murray McCully. Think of the hyper-emotionalism of Nick Smith. If they were women, they would have been laughed out of Cabinet long ago, or would never made it there in the first ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Ardern’s ascension & Trump’s triumph
Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
First published on Werewolf
Thank goodness for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). The Court of Appeal has just ringingly found in favour of the pilots’ union over the safety issues raised by the Wellington runway extension.
Not only has the previous High Court ruling been overturned. The Director of Civil ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell: the runway extension’s latest court failure